Rowling explores American magic ahead of new film
March 9, 2016
Each day from Tuesday to Friday this week, J.K. Rowling is offering a text on her Pottermore website entitled "History of Magic in North America."
Released every afternoon, the texts are intended to set the scene and present the backstory for the film "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," a "Harry Potter" prequel slated for release in November.
Rowling's first text, according to the website, takes readers "back through the centuries to reveal the beginnings of the North American magical community and how witches and wizards used magic before they adopted wands."
The Wednesday piece is to focus on "the dangers faced by witches and wizards in the New World," while Thursday will be dedicated to the "Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA).'"
The conclusion on Friday will bring readers back to the Roaring '20s, the decade in which the upcoming film is set.
Latest in a series of new projects
"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" stars Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne as "magizoologist" Newt Scamander, who studies magical creatures in Rowling's imaginary world. Set in the mid-1920s mainly in New York, the film takes place decades before Harry Potter begins his adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Rowling has recently tackled a number of side projects, including a stage production of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," which opens in London in late July, and detective novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
The chair she sat on while writing her first two "Harry Potter" novels goes up for auction in the US in April.
kbm/cmk (Reuters, AP)